Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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A year ago, I wrote about why the July 4 holiday is one of my favorite times of the year. A week later, a reader told me I obviously didn't believe in freedom and America and democracy because of an immigration column printed on the same editorial page as my Fourth favorites. Opinions on the editorial page vary, as they should, representing individuals from all walks of life. The person questioning my choices didn't bother to ask if I agreed with the column. Instead, I was labeled a liberal...
Finally got around to eating the fortune cookie from my Saturday trip to Hastings. This little gem was inside: You are admired as a leader in your community. Aww, thanks, Panda Express. In reality, I’m just a small-town girl at heart, who grew up watching her parents volunteer for everything. Pitching in, helping out was, and is, expected. It’s part of who I am, like the other volunteers and leaders in our communities. Drive through any small town on a Saturday morning and pay attention. Som...
I've often said that rural people measure time differently. We don't always go by clocks. We go by seasons, weather, and whatever is happening outside the kitchen window. Summer, especially, has its own calendar. The day starts when the sun peeks over the trees and ends when the last streak of pink disappears from the western sky. Lunch isn't necessarily at noon. It's whenever you finish what you're doing. And evening plans are always subject to change depending on whether a thunderstorm is...
During Saturday's Holt County Historical Society Caravan Tour, I was reminded that history isn't just found in textbooks or archives. Sometimes it's tucked inside a faded photograph, an old movie ticket, or a well-worn letterman's sweater hanging on a display wall. The tour made several stops throughout the county, each sharing stories that helped shape the communities we know today. In Ewing, local historian Butch Rotherham welcomed a large group of visitors and shared stories about the village...
Every year about this time, I start making grand plans. This is going to be the summer I get things done. I'm going to organize closets. Pull weeds before they become a crop. Hose off the deck. Clean the garage. Maybe even tackle those projects that have been sitting on my to-do list so long they've become family heirlooms. The motivation arrives right on schedule, usually sometime in May when the first warm breeze blows through and the trees start leafing out. By June, however, that motivation...
It’s late Monday evening, and rain is spilling from the heavens, with a few pieces of hail thrown in for good measure. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning and, judging by the lake flowing down our sidewalk, it’s easy to see why. Last week’s drought monitor, released May 21 by the University of Nebraska, showed approximately two-thirds of the state in severe to extreme drought. Across eastern Nebraska, most counties ranged from abnormally dry to severe, with only the s...
Every summer in rural America begins the same way: somebody unfolds a lawn chair. Not because they particularly want to sit in the heat for six hours. Not because the food lines are short. Not because mosquitoes have suddenly become enjoyable. They show up because that’s what small towns do. This weekend begins another season of community celebrations across the Summerland area, and before long our calendars will blur into parades, rodeos, ballgames, barbecue smoke, gravel parking lots and l...
There's something humbling about realizing your world can shrink to the size of an elevation pillow. Since my left knee replacement surgery on May 7, life has become a carefully choreographed routine of ice packs, physical therapy appointments, medication alarms and trying not to spill tea while balancing a laptop on one leg. The right knee was replaced back in December, so at least this time I knew what I was walking into - eventually literally walking into. Experience helps. The first knee...
There's a moment coming on Saturday - somewhere between the last note of "Pomp and Circumstance" and the toss of the caps - when a hard truth quietly settles in. High school wasn't just school. It was the interview. Not the kind with a desk and a résumé and someone asking about your strengths and weaknesses. The longer kind. The kind that lasted four years. The kind where people were watching even when you didn't think they were. And now the question is simple: did you show up like it mattered?...
There are a lot of things high school students wish they had more of. Money. Sleep. Gas in the tank. Followers. Time tops the list-and it's the one thing nobody is getting a refill on. Here's the uncomfortable truth: most students don't actually have a time problem. They have a time management problem. And yes, that sounds like something an adult would say right before telling you to clean your room - or be on time for prom or the 8 a.m. bell - but stay with me. Because this isn't about nagging....
I'm going to keep it short this week. I'm still trying to recover from the weekend in Lincoln for the press convention. What a great experience! I always come home with so many practical ideas. I cannot wait to implement a few of the ideas. One of my favorite sessions was led by Tom Hallman Jr., a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who writes for The Oregonian. His approach to storytelling is similar to mine. He offered some tips about digging deeper into the psyche of a story. That point...
What's the saying? It takes 28 days to form a habit. I always have these plans, grandiose ideas in the back of my mind, that I dive into for a short period of time. And then? Crickets. For whatever reason, I get sidetracked (one daughter believes I have adult-onset ADD). Oh look, shiny objects. She may be right. I used to be a master at multi-tasking. Now, not so much. My mind wanders. I have too long of a to-do list. Completing one task at a time seems so much simpler. I was thinking about a...
I've traveled to different places over the years - overpopulated cities and rural villages - and one element makes certain places stand out. You just know when a place has a defined sense of community. It isn't necessarily a bustling downtown or cutesy storefronts. It's a feeling experienced while talking to residents, the pride shown in its collective history, the initiative to look ahead and map a future. It's an energy that encourages collaboration, a chance to dream big and celebrate...
Despite this week's weather forecast of temperatures in the 30s and 40s, I've been thinking about gardening season. (I'm sure Scott will find this as a surprise, since he handles all of the gardening. I usually take care of canning and freezing detail.) In a typical summer, Scott and I make enough salsa and spaghetti sauce and freeze enough chopped tomatoes to get us through chili season, sometimes beyond. We usually freeze green beans and sweet corn, bag some freezer slaw, and candy enough jala...
Go Big Red. What an opening to the collegiate basketball tourney. Like I wrote on the paper's Facebook page following Saturday's game, I've waited 60-some years for the Huskers to win a tournament game. Now we have two. Incredible. Watching Reink Mast hug longtime announcer Kent Pavelka following Thursdays win, priceless. Watching Sandfort hit three-point shot after three-point shot, Pryceless. Watching the Husker faithful show up en masse, priceless. Watching Tyler Tanner's last-second shot dro...
One never knows what will happen on deadline day, a.k.a. Tuesday. My phone rang 8:06 a.m. Caller ID said United States Postal Service. Since I work directly with them to mail the paper, and since I get weekly updates about mailing status, and since I have voiced opinions about the mailing process, I figured I better answer. It was Marcie, from the USPS call center, wondering if I would like to learn how USPS could help me grow my small business. Oh Marcie, you’re speaking my language. As the n...
To borrow a line from one of my favorite podcasters, Kylie Kelce - I’m not gonna lie. I cried like a schoolgirl breaking up with her adolescent crush Sunday afternoon when the Husker senior basketball players and their families were recognized at the season finale in Lincoln. Watching this group battle through the worst of times and flip this season on its head to become the best in Husker history has been amazing. It seems like yesterday they upset the BYU Cougars men’s basketball team in an...
For nearly a month, I’ve had a nagging cough, drippy nose, and an overall feeling of malaise. During that time, I debated whether to drive myself to the emergency room in the middle of the night due to a high fever (Scott wouldn’t wake up, I tried), experienced muscle pain in the ribs from excessive coughing, and shuddered every time my ears popped. For relief, I tried a shot or two of blackberry brandy, antibiotics, over-the-counter meds and homemade concoctions. While some worked better tha...
Not gonna lie, my heart skipped a beat when I checked numbers for the Top 5 articles read online in last week’s edition. Why? Two legal notices made the list. Public notices are required to keep citizens informed about actions of government entities. A public notice holds the government accountable, relying on an independent third party to print proof of publication. By doing so, each public notice has verifiable proof - via paper trail - of its permanent existence in print. Simply posting a n...
Someone recently asked me to describe district wrestling since they have never attended. It’s a glimpse of pure joy, and a view of intense heartbreak. Tears flow - win or lose - after you’ve invested energy and headspace to an activity that pushes you to physical and mental limits. Nothing wrong with tears. It’s the culmination of sweat equity, countless practice sessions, prayers for a healthy season. Over the last two weekends, I watched several athletes who let the liquid flow follo...
When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “Music is the universal language of mankind - poetry their universal pastime and delight,” his message was clear: music extends beyond cultural, linguistic and social boundaries, it creates connections and shouts emotion. If you watched Sunday’s halftime show with Bad Bunny, you saw Longfellow’s quote come to life. From the sugarcane fields blowing in the breeze, to the LA taqueria serving tacos, to the symbolic high-line power poles that serve as a reminder of how natural disasters affect his native...
Multiple times a month, never fail, I listen to friends, neighbors, acquaintances, etc., opine about government operations, from the local to federal level. After I listen to their concerns, my first questions to them are simple. What steps are or have you taken to make your voice heard? Or, have you attended a meeting and shared your thoughts? The questions are usually met with silence. Don’t say you’ve attended a fill-in-the-name-of-a-government-body meeting. At most local meetings, I’m the l...
Scroll through social media - any platforms - and you’ll see artificial intelligence-generated photos and videos. While elements of AI products may make it difficult to differentiate between what’s real and what’s not, the rapid rollout of deepfakes makes the line between fact from fiction a blurry mess. Case in point: A person from my hometown posted multiple pieces of AI-generated media on the book of faces over the weekend. So many, in fact, that I snoozed her for 30 days, all the while...
I’ve been thinking a lot about hands-on education. Recently, I read an article from the Daily Yonder, which focuses on stories from rural America, highlighting a newspaper in Wisconsin - the Pulaski News - which has been a student-run community newspaper for 80 years. When the former owner decided to halt publication, the local school superintendent opted to keep the newspaper operational by having students deliver the news. The journalism teacher serves as the editor-in-chief. Students r...
What if the world we are experiencing is actually a parallel universe, and we’re living in a different universe, watching and learning from situations on plane one and instituting - or denying - change on plane two? Kind of like Quantum Leap. As long as I’m using television shows as a reference point ... If we’re living in a plot line from “Stranger Things,” we need to seal the rift between the real world and the Upside Down. The demagorgons need to be defeated and the Mind Flayer must stop attacking people. If you know, you know. My heart and...
